The big issue affecting the price of oil is one of the most basic
of all economic principles: supply and demand. Oil is flooding
into the market thanks to massive production from the OPEC
nations, and global demand for oil, despite being at five-year
highs, just can't keep pace.

The IEA's monthly release provides a snapshot of what's going on
globally in the oil markets, and this month it doesn't provide
much encouragement for anyone who thinks the price of oil will
rise.

The IEA has increased its forecasts of how much oil supply will
outstrip demand over the first half of 2016, saying 1.75 million
more barrels of oil a day will be produced than are needed, up
from the 1.5 million barrels forecast in January.

That means the price of oil is going nowhere, or at least
nowhere upward. As the IEA puts it, "With the market already
awash in oil, it is very hard to see how oil prices can rise
significantly in the short term."

Here's a look at oil's long term slide:

Investing.com

OPEC's almost total refusal to even consider cutting
production is the big driver of oil's stubborn low prices, and
that is reflected in the IEA saying the confederation of
producers pumped out 280,000 more barrels every day last month
than in December.

This has been helped by Iran's reentry into the global
markets after the lifting of sanctions in January. Since then, it
has increased production by 80,000 barrels a day to 2.99 million,
the IEA says.